Tampa Bay Rays edge Philadelphia Phillies 3-2 to level series – MLB Update
Tampa Bay Rays showed great composure and fighting spirits as they edged Philadelphia Phillies 3-2 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Sunday, June 24 in the second game of their three match series of the 2012 Major League Baseball regular
season.
Rays’ starting pitcher David Price put up another powerful performance as he outpitched Philadelphia’s Cole Hamels in a thrilling contest. Price won for the tenth time this season, giving up just four hits and one run in seven solid innings.
He is now officially the first pitcher to reach 10 win in American League this season and it will be interesting to see if he can continue his superb form to help the Rays replace American League East leaders New York Yankees.
"I try to treat every start the same but whenever you're facing somebody who is one of their top guys, it definitely heightens your sense of awareness," Price said. "You know you can't go six and give up three."
"David was outstanding, really, really good," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "That's a great day's work."
"It's hard for us to have a winning streak because of our pitching," Charlie Manuel said. "At the same time, we're weak in other areas too. That's what I see."
Philadelphia Phillies will be extremely disappointed to lose in a game that was played on very competitive note. Handling the pressure absolutely brilliantly, they secured a narrow 7-6 win in series opener.
Leading score 1-0 in the seventh, it seemed the will secure another close win to take a decisive 2-0 series lead but the Rays had other ideas.
Carlos Pena turned things around for the Rays with a mighty three run home run to right in the eighth, helping his team come back from behind to take a crucial 3-1 lead.
For the Phillies, Jimmy Rollins displayed some top quality hitting skills as he homered to left in the sixth to put the Phillies 1-0 ahead.
Ty Wigginton had an RBI single off Burke Badenhop in the eighth to reduce Rays’ lead to 2-3 but the effort did not prove to be enough and Joe Maddon and company held on to their slim advantage to level series 1-1.
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